socialexperiment

Watch New Yorkers Get Surprised with Polaroid Street Photos of Themselves

Brooklyn-based photographer Josh Katz made this 11-minute video of a social experiment he did on the streets of New York City to "turn street photography on its head." Instead of shooting photos of strangers and walking away with the images, Katz shot Polaroids of people, handed them the picture to keep, and then tried to strike up conversations as the prints developed.

Fake Wedding Photo Shoot Draws Attention to Child Bride Issue in Lebanon

In Lebanon, 14-year-old children can get married without their parents permission, and marriages involving 12-year-olds are not rare. But not everyone approves of the idea of child brides -- in fact, it seems that a majority doesn't.

The video above is a social experiment staged by the rights organization KAFA recently. They had a 12-year-old girl pretend to be a child bride, posing for a wedding photo shoot with her new husband... who looks old enough to be her grandfather. Hidden cameras nearby documented the reaction of passersby who noticed the photo shoot.

6 Photographers Asked to Shoot Portraits of 1 Man… With a Twist

Canon conducted an interesting experiment on the power of perspective in portrait photography. The camera company enlisted the help of 6 photographers and asked them each to independently shoot portraits of a man named Michael. But there was a twist: each photographer was told a different thing about Michael's background.

The $10 IKEA Piece: An Interesting Social Experiment on the Value of Art

When Peter Lik sold a print to a collector for $6.5 million last year, people balked at the news. Lik is known to be a savvy businessman who has raked in over $440 million by churning out and selling his "collectible" prints to deep-pocketed people who want to invest in his art, so why should his prints be worth so much?

The Internet media channel LifeHunters recently did a social experiment that explores how people perceive and value art. They placed a $10 IKEA print in the Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem, The Netherlands, and asked "art experts" what they thought about it.

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

Memphis-based photographer Haley Morris-Cafiero has long been aware of strangers making fun of her behind her back due to her size. So aware, in fact, that she has turned the whole concept into a full-blown photography project. Titled Wait Watchers, the series consists of Morris-Cafiero's self-portraits in public in which strangers can be seen in the background giving her strange looks and/or laughing.

The Emperor’s New Gadget: Behold the Effect of Fanboyism on Consumers

Marketing and customer loyalty are two powerful things. They can make minor improvements in gadgets seem great, and major advancements to-die-for. In the world of photography, many camera owners feel strong allegiances to the brand they use, fiercely defending it as their own, and even going on the offensive to belittle other photographers who shoot under a different banner. This kind of customer loyalty does strange things to how the "fanboys" perceive the quality of their camera gear.

What It Feels Like to Be a Freelance Photographer

Freelancers often have to deal with the difficult challenge of trying to satisfy vaguely stated requests from clients, and also the frustration of meeting new requirements that aren't revealed until after the work is "completed". The video above is an interesting social experiment by Don't Get Screwed Over that attempts to show people what these freelance horror stories feel like to the people getting "screwed over".

Do People Recognize Great Photography?

In 2007, Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten conducted a social experiment in which he recruited one of the world's great violinists, Joshua Bell, to play in a Washington D.C. subway station. Just two days prior to the experiment, Bell had played in a sold-out Boston theater in which ordinary tickets sold for $100 apiece.